Professional-choice group claims arson assault on Wisconsin anti-abortion workplace | Wisconsin

Federal brokers and detectives from the Madison police division are investigating a declare by a pro-choice group that it was behind a weekend arson attack on an anti-abortion workplace in Wisconsin.

The headquarters of Wisconsin Family Action in Madison was attacked within the early hours of Sunday, with a molotov cocktail thrown by a window, starting a small hearth, and graffiti spray-painted on an exterior wall. No one was hurt.

In a statement reported on Tuesday by the Lincoln Journal Star, which stated it was unable to confirm the group’s authenticity, Jane’s Revenge said it launched the assault due to the organization’s anti-abortion stance, and demanded that related institutions throughout the US disband or face “more and more excessive techniques”.

“Wisconsin is the primary flashpoint, but we are all over the US, and we are going to challenge no additional warnings,” the assertion stated, citing the violence of anti-choice groups who “bomb [abortion] clinics and assassinate docs with impunity” as justification.

The Madison assault got here days after the leaking of a supreme court docket draft ruling that will overturn its 1973 Roe v Wade determination and end virtually half a century of constitutional abortion protections.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) advised the Guardian that its agents have been aware of the group’s claims of accountability, however cited the continued investigation for being unable to offer extra particulars.

The Madison police department stated it was “aware of a bunch claiming responsibility for the arson at Wisconsin Household Action and are working with our federal companions to determine the veracity of that declare”.

It urged anyone with relevant info to make contact, saying: “We take all information and ideas associated to this case significantly and are working to vet every one.”

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the Madison PD and ATF agents announced a joint investigation into what it known as an “abortion extremism case involving an arson and graffiti attack of a pro-life advocacy office in Madison”.

The Madison police chief, Shon Barnes, stated no suspects had up to now been identified. Authorities were expected to give a further update on Tuesday afternoon.

In a values assertion on its web site, Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) describes itself as a Judeo-Christian group dedicated to “strengthening, preserving, and selling marriage, family, life and liberty.

“We help the sanctity of human life from the second of conception by means of pure demise. This contains opposing laws that promotes the destruction of human life – which begins at conception – by means of abortion and different means,” it says.

Jack Hoogendyk, the WFA board chairman, attacked the response to the assault in a tweet posted on Tuesday morning, singling out Wisconsin’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers, and Madison PD detectives.

“We have to see a much stronger message of condemnation of this exercise from our Governor [and] from native legislation enforcement,” he wrote.

At a press conference on Monday, Evers referred to as the assault “a horrible incident”.

Calling for a full investigation and arrests, he added: “Because the state of Wisconsin, we don’t accept that sort of violence here.”

An assault on an anti-abortion office is a relative rarity compared with assaults on abortion clinics and suppliers. In 2019, the Guardian reported on an “alarming escalation” in picketing, vandalism and trespassing by anti-abortion activists at medical amenities.

Arson, bombings, murders and acid attacks have been among more than 300 acts of maximum violence recorded by the Rand Corporation between 1973 and 2003, and in one of the heinous incidents, in 2009, Dr George Tiller, a Kansas abortion supplier, was shot useless in a church in Wichita.

In March, MS journal reported that the variety of brick-and-mortar abortion clinics nationwide had dropped precipitously, partly because of the fixed threat of violence in opposition to personnel. Six states, MS mentioned, had only one abortion supplier, principally small, impartial operators who were considered most at risk.

“Abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming price,” the article stated. “Independent suppliers are the most weak to anti-abortion assaults and violence directed at their staff.”